Divisions in the Catholic Church Gerry OShea
The Catholic
Church in the United States is in the throes of a major crisis. About 900,000
members leave the church every year. This accumulated leakage has led to no
less than 13% of the American population identifying themselves as former
Catholics.
No doubt,
the sexual abuse crisis where clergymen took advantage of their power by
engaging in sexual behavior with young boys and girls is the principal reason
for the exodus of so many Catholics from the family religion that they grew up
with. The abuse by trusted religious adults did untold harm, but even worse,
was the widespread cover-up by prelates stretching all the way to the papal
chair.
This crisis
is ongoing as witnessed in the recent Vatican report on the egregious behavior
of Theodore McCarrick, who was finally defrocked by Francis, the suspension of
Brooklyn Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio, who is accused by two former parishioners of
sexual attacks, and Fr. George Rutler, a parish pastor in Manhattan and scion
of right-wing media, accused of predatory behavior by a scared employee.
The American
church is divided between a progressive wing, identified with supporting Pope
Francis’ leadership, and a strong traditionalist rump of conservatives who
bemoan and undermine the actions of the current Vatican leadership.
In the November presidential election Catholic
voters split down the middle between President Trump, an amoral leader who
boasted that he did more to promote major points of the church agenda than any
previous occupant of the White House, and former vice-president Joe Biden, a
churchgoing Catholic who ascribes his commitment to improving the lives of the
poor and middle class to his early grounding in the social teaching of his
church.
Basic differences
in culture and Ideology play a major role in the deep and sometimes bitter
divisions in the church.
In October
2019 as part of the Amazon Synod many participants, including Pope Francis,
gathered for prayers in the Vatican Library. On display were several small
figurines of a naked, pregnant, indigenous woman identified with Pachamama, a
goddess honored as Mother Earth by the local people in the Andes and Amazon
regions.
The reaction
to this display among traditional Catholics was mostly hostile with the finger
of blame pointed at Francis for participating in what they dubbed an idolatrous
ceremony seemingly affirming a place for “pagan worship.” German Cardinal
Walter Brandmuller reached deep to verses seen as end-time biblical projections
to describe the statuettes as “the abomination of desolation standing in the
holy place.”
On the other
hand, progressives saw the images of fertility and nakedness as particularly
poignant and respectful of local customs and beliefs.
The word Pachamama
continues as a symbol of division between the two modes of thinking about
indigenous lifestyles in the Church. Pope Francis lauded the “the presence of
native people in the prayer services” which, he concluded was “twisted by
hysterical accusations of paganism.”
At the end
of his visit to Ireland in the summer of 2018, Archbishop Carla Maria Vigano, a
former papal nuncio in Washington, released a statement accusing the pope of
disregarding condemnatory information which he provided about Theodore McCarrick’s
malfeasance and calling on him to resign from the papacy. Since then he has
accused the man he calls Bergoglio - never Pope Francis – of heading up “an
anti-church of heretics, corrupt men and fornication.”
After the
McCarrick accusation, nearly all the European bishops rallied quickly to
Francis’ side. A few weeks elapsed before the American prelates expressed
solidarity with their leader in Rome and, indeed, a few dozen declared that
they found Vigano’s accusations credible.
The former
nuncio wrote approvingly to President Trump prior to the recent presidential
election. His words assailed their mutual enemies, diabolical proponents of one-world
government led by Francis and the United Nations. He also assured Mr. Trump
that he sympathized with his negative feelings towards the all-powerful deep
state because he himself has to deal with similarly hostile deep church forces.
He summed up his position in a EWTN interview: “Bergoglio is to deep church
what Biden is to deep state.”
Cardinal
Raymond Burke, former head of the Archdiocese of St Louis, is the senior church
leader who makes no bones about his disillusionment with Francis’ leadership.
In fact, he has refused to rule out that the pope is a schismatic.
One of
Burke’s pet peeves concerns the use of female altar servers at mass. He feels
that boys learn a healthy respect for their manliness assisting the priest on
the altar. He contends that this lessening of suitable role models, the
feminization of the liturgy, explains the big drop-off in vocations.
Burke
stresses that women have an important part in the church, but not near the
altar where manliness has to prevail, except for taking care of the flower
arrangements.
Paranoia is
central to the right-wing culture that sees enemies around every corner.
Recently, Raymond Burke gave his approval to the far-out idea that governments
might implant controlling microchips under vaccine recipients’ skin, so that in
his tantalizing words the government can control individual citizens’ behavior.
This idea gives some credence to wild theories about government exercising dominance
over the thinking and decisions of its people.
Former EWTN
president, Dan Burke, writing in Crisis magazine, went so far as to say that
the Black Lives Matter movement doesn’t just advocate for a crude form of
Marxism but also promotes witchcraft requiring participants to get an exorcism.
George Soros
and Bill Gates are the two main guilty parties in this conspiracy world that
extends beyond North America and includes most European countries. The Clintons
are also accused of being part of a grand strategy for world government. It speaks
of satanic plans by liberals and fellow-travelers to capture hundreds of
thousands of children in order to torture and rape them and to drink their
blood while engaging in satanic rituals. Hard to comprehend that people believe
this rubbish which, of course, no branch of law enforcement has ever validated.
In the early
months of Francis’ papacy, he expressed an opinion that divorced and remarried
Catholics should be allowed to receive communion. A few years later he espoused
civil marriage unions for stable homosexual couples. Of course, he did not
advocate changing Christian marriage regulations as belonging to a man and a
woman.
His
opponents, led by Vigano and Burke, spoke about his suggestions as anathema to
Catholic teaching. They prefer the unchanging church morality from before the
Second Vatican Council in the 1960’s. In those times of hellfire and limbo
churchgoers heard the clear traditional teaching, especially in areas tied to
sexual morality.
Francis
advises that we have to preach to a changing congregation and the church has to
modernize or lose its relevance.
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